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Installing FreeBSD 9

Before we start on the install I want to point out there is a slight difference between the FreeBSD 8.x install and the 9.x Install. On 8.x you usually had to hit TAB and then click OK when selecting an option on a menu. On FreeBSD 9 this is not the case. When you're done selective your options just hitting enter on the menu item will suffice.

We will first want to obtain FreeBSD 1.x via the most preferred mothod; Torrents. Yea ... I know. I don't have to say anything but downloading off Torrents is by far the fastest way to get the ISO. Click the following link to get a list of all the available FreeBSD torrents:

There are a few choices in the list. I would grab The FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso

Download the torrent and it will download the ISO. It is up to you how you install the media whether you burn it and install on a PC or install via ESXi 5.x (or 6.x) or any other means of installing a virtual machine. I run FreeBSD 10.1 on ESXi 6.0 at the moment.

Once you get the installation started it will ask if you want to Install, Go to a Shell or Live CD. The obvious choice is to click Install.

Next screen is if you want to set a non-default key map? I choose no. If you know you need this then click Yes and choose your option there.

The next screen is the hostname. Type your hostname as it would appear on your network. On my LAN at home it would be FreeBSD9.home.local

The next screen will give you 4 options and I will discuss all 4 options below:

doc - Recommended! This is to install the FreeBSD Man(ual) pages on this hostgames - Optionalports - Recommended! This is to install the ports systemsrc - Optional - Only install this if you want to track -STABLE

Click ok at the bottom.

At this point it will ask if you want to use the guided method for partitioning, manual or shell. Easiest way to install is via the guided option. Next screen choose entire disk.At this point you can leave the defaults or choose to edit them. Myself I am still old school so I still like to visually see the /var and /tmp partitions. Do I would delete the freebsd-ufs and then make 3 new ones:

Hit enter on create and choose the following (the size of the drive will vary depending on your machine drive space. I am using a 50GB drive in total in this example)

Type freebsd-ufsSize 5GBMountpoint /tmp

Type freebsd-ufsSize 10GBMountpoint /var

Type freebsd-ufsSize * GBMountpoint /usr

The * above indicates use the rest of the drive

When you're done with your selections use the right arrow key to go over to finish. it's going to ask you to confirm your changes. Click commit and we're going to have to wait for it to finish.

At this point we are nearly finished. When the install is completed it will jump to the "Change your root password" screen. Type in a HIGHLY secure password. It should be no less than 8 characters and consist of letters, numbers and punctuation. It will ask you to confirm the password twice.

The next screen will ask you to configure your network adapter. Choose the adapter that is shown on the screen and hit enter. The next screen will ask you if you want to use DHCP. Choose Yes or No depending on your network. In most cases DHCP is the most common option. The next screen will ask if you want to configure IPv4 for this interface. Again, This is the most common method so hitting Enter should be ok. The next screen will ask if you want to configure IPv6 which is the next generation of IP addresses. If you have it and you know it click yes. Otherwise if you don't no click No.

The next screen is your Network Configuration screen. Just hit ok.

When asked Is your CMOS Set to UTC? If you're sure your BIOS is set to UTC, hit yes. Otherwise hit no even if you're unsure.

Choose your Country and hit Enter and then choose your closest State/Province and then hit Enter again.

ALMOST DONE! Now it will ask you if you want to configure any other options. See below:

sshd - RECOMMENDED! Don't disable this. This will allow you to ssh into the box remotelymoused - Optional - You can install this if you plan on using X/gnome/KDE/Etc.ntpd - Optional - You can specify a NTP server to sync timepowerd - Optional - You can use this to adjust CPU frequency dynamically

It will ask you if you want to enable Dumpdev Configuration. I choose No.

If you want to add users to the system at the time on the next screen click yes. Otherwise click no.

You should now be at the Final Configuration screen. You can change what options are in this screen or you can just hit Enter to exit. It will ask you to confirm if you really want to exit and the system will then reboot.